Christina Asp, the woman at the centre of an extensive undercover police investigation, was found guilty of second-degree murder late Friday afternoon.

After three months of testimony from approximately 60 witnesses, the jury of 10 women and two men took about 26 hours to convict Asp for the murder of 63-year-old Gordon Seybold.

Asp stood quietly while the verdict was read, with her back to a nearly-empty courtroom.

Seybold's body was found on March 26, 2008 after his cabin burned to the ground in the Ibex Valley, a small community west of Whitehorse.

Asp had been charged with first-degree murder.

A conviction for second-degree murder suggests the jury was not convinced Seybold's murder was planned or deliberate.

The only question remaining is how much of her life sentence the 34-year-old will serve before she is eligible for parole. That could range anywhere from 10 to the full 25 years.

In his opening statement to the jury in March, prosecutor David McWhinnie told that court that "In essence, (Asp) will become a witness in her own trial.”

That proved to be true.

Much of the trial centred around an extensive RCMP undercover operation, dubbed Project Monsoon, and secretly-recorded conversations between Asp and the undercover officers.

The "Mr. Big” style operation, inspired by an episode of the TV show The Sopranos, involved convincing Asp she had been welcomed into a powerful female-led criminal family with the ability to cover up crimes.

For months between February and August 2009, she travelled around the country working for the family and telling her new friends about the early-morning hours when Seybold died.

The jury heard multiple recordings of Asp talking about what she said happened, including some recordings during trips back to the Yukon to re-enact the crime and help "clean up” evidence.

Asp tells her new bosses that she and her then-boyfriend, Norman Larue, went to Seybold's cabin and the two men got into a fight.

When Seybold appeared to get the upper hand on her boyfriend, Asp tells the officers, she hit him three times with a bat.

During the trial, she took the stand denying her role in the attack, claiming she just watched while Larue attacked Seybold.

Larue is charged with first-degree murder and arson and will face a separate trial.

Asp testified she exaggerated her role in Seybold's death as a way to impress her new bosses and maintain the job and lifestyle they were providing for her.

Her lawyer, Ken Tessovitch, portrayed his client as someone who had been taken advantage of by the undercover officers, calling her confessions "false” and "bought and paid for.”

During the trial, Tessovitch repeatedly questioned the officers' techniques in this case. They included buying Asp gifts, putting her up in nice hotel rooms, taking her out to restaurants, and paying her rent.

On the stand, Asp told the jury she grew up in a dysfunctional Yukon household with an alcoholic mother and a father with strict religious beliefs.

Between the ages of six and 12, Asp said, she was sexually assaulted four times by different people.

At 12, she ran away from home, and while living on the streets, sometimes worked in prostitution.

An admitted alcoholic and crack cocaine addict, Asp said she was using drugs and drinking in 2008, the year Seybold died.

McWhinnie, along with prosecutor Bonnie Macdonald, told the jury Asp had no reason to lie to her new criminal friends.

In fact, they said, she had every reason to tell the truth, believing these people were going to help her clean up the crime.

What motivated Seybold's murder remains unclear.

In some of the recordings, Asp tells the undercover officers it was her mother, Jessie Asp, who had wanted Seybold to die.

Other times, she says she just thought Larue was to beat Seybold to get him to leave her mother alone.

Jessie Asp took the stand during the trial and told the jury she didn't have a problem with Seybold.

She testified she recently remembered telling the couple to stay away from Seybold when Larue spoke of plans to rob him.

Testimony began later than was expected as officials struggled to find enough people to fill the jury.

This was the Yukon's first "mega trial,” meaning it was the first trial to be conducted using 14 jurors instead of the standard 12.

This was done to ensure that over a long trial, there would still be enough jurors to render a verdict if illness or other emergencies occurred.

Instead of the standard 300 summonses sent out ahead of time to recruit potential jurors, 436 were sent out for the Asp trial.

Of those, 279 were dismissed ahead of time by the sheriff for regular reasons. They ranged from student status, medical conditions or if a person had confirmed, non-refundable travel plans.

After questioning the 167 citizens remaining, the jury was still short two members.

Sheriff's deputies were forced to pull another 70 people off the street before the final two spots were filled.

In the end, the extra jurors were not necessary. All 14 sat in the same red chairs in the jury box day after day listening to testimony.

After completing his final instructions last Thursday, Justice Leigh Gower chose two jurors to be excused.

After dedicating all this time to the legal process, they were not part of the final decision.

In the Yukon, jurors are paid $80 a day.

The Yukon government bumped up the annual budget for legal aid services by $200,000 to fund the Asp and Larue trials (the latter's is set for later this year).

This is not the first person Asp has been convicted of killing.

She pled guilty to manslaughter in the 2004 death of her common-law partner, Keith Blanchard, after plunging a 13-inch knife six inches into his chest.

She was on parole for that conviction and on the run from a B.C. halfway house when she arrived back home in the Yukon at the time of Seybold's murder.

The jury was not told of this previous conviction, with Gower having ruled the information would have been too prejudicial to the just-ended trial.

After delivering their verdict, the jurors were given the option to make recommendations to the judge as to how long Asp should remain in prison before becoming eligible for parole.

Six of the 12 jurors recommended 16 years. The remaining recommendations ranged from 10 to 20 years. One juror opted not to make a recommendation. In the end, the decision will be left up to the judge.

The lawyers will meet next month to set a date for sentencing.

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